In an interview in office number 1403 in the State Capitol, Sen. Charlie Janssen doesn't offer much insight about why a first-term senator would make immigration — inherently contentious and complicated — his pet issue. There's no Minuteman poster on his wall. No United States map with a red target. Instead, there are drawings from school kids with Latino names thanking him for a visit; not the...

A resolution adopted last week in the Legislature would allow the Health and Human Services Committee to investigate and assess the effects of Nebraska's child welfare reform — a process that has produced many problems and questions since the state privatized its services in November 2009. Since then, three of the five lead agencies hired in the reform have dropped out or declared bankruptcy,...

More than a dozen opponents — including groups like Nebraska's Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, Building Bright Futures, the Nebraska Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the largest Hispanic Conservative group, Somos Republicans — testified Monday that the Legislature's Education Committee should kill a bill to repeal the state's Dream Act, a 2006...

When Jeff Miller returned from Saudi Arabia in 2003, he jumped feet first back into society. The staff sergeant and security forces specialist with the 363rd expeditionary security forces squadron did everything expected of him: got married; got a job; had two children.
But something was wrong. He started having nightmares, flash anger — going from mildly irritated to explosively angry in...

Vietnam War veteran and former Nebraska governor and U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey will be in Omaha Jan. 31 to salute At Ease, an Omaha program providing confidential behavioral health services to active duty military personnel and family members.
Founded by Omaha advertising executive Scott Anderson, At Ease is administered by Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. Kerrey, whose embattled New School...

UNO communication professor Chris Allen recently returned from a two-week needs assessment trip to Afghanistan. His journey was part of a federally funded journalism faculty-student development program between the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Kabul University.
As Afghanistan attempts normalization in this post-Taliban era, the nation’s indigenous media uneasily co-exist with Islamic law...

More than 99 percent of Sudanese citizens in Omaha voted to split their home country into separate nations as part of Southern Sudan Referendum vote last week.
In all, more than 8,000 Sudanese natives voted in eight cities throughout the U.S. Omaha had the highest turnout nationwide with 3,076 voters casting ballots. The result in Omaha mirrored that of the rest of the U.S. vote with 99 percent...

Elkhorn Sen. Lavonn Heidemann introduced a bill (LB123) Jan. 18 that would expand the disciplinary powers of Nebraska schools in cases of cyberbullying.
Current state law allows schools to punish students for harassment via email, text message or other forms of social media only if the bullying occurred on school grounds or at school events. The new proposal would allow school administrators to...